Would like to replace dead hdd in an aspire E5-521-24PQ with a ssd

KRob22883

Recently the hdd in my aspire went out. So I went out and bought a ssd. Now my question is this: How do I install this drive and get it to be recognized? What Bios settings do I need to have setup? I'm going to be reinstalling Windows 8.1 again. The ssd is a Sandisk SSD Plus SDSSDA-240G. Much thanks for any help and guidance.

JonM

Hello,

 

The good news is that 2.5" SATA SSD's are usually plug and play. All you would have to do is remove your dead 2.5" hard drive and plug the SSD in it's place with the same connectors. If your computer already had Windows 8.1 on it, it's already set up to use UEFI instead of the Legacy BIOS. No adjustments would be necessary.

 

Since you'll be doing a clean install (most likely from a Microsoft Win 8.1 DVD or USB drive) I don't believe that Windows is going to pick up your device's original embedded product key, so you may need a new key for activation. If you aren't asked for a key during installation or initial setup, right click on the start button in the lower left corner of the desktop. Choose "System", and you'll see your activation status. It should read "Windows is Activated".

 

SSD's have a finite number of reads/writes and although this number is exponentially huge, you don't want to un-necessarily waste any. DO NOT defragment an SSD, it will not help performance, and it will kill the lifespan of your drive. Windows 8.1 should be smart enough to auto disable scheduled defrags, but double check yourself to make sure this feature is turned off.

 

Congratulations on your new SSD upgrade! I'm sure you're going to enjoy the extreme speed increase that comes of it.

JordanB

I would recommend that you search the forum.

 

There's lots of posts and videos on how to create a USB factory default recovery drive, and then use your recovery drive to restore.

 

There's lots of posts on how to order your recovery media from Acer if you forgot to create a recovery drive.

 

There's lots of posts on how to clone.

 

There's lots of posts on how to clean install.

 

There's lots of posts on how to create a system image.

 

There's lots of posts that describe how your embedded key will be automatically retrieved so you don't have to purchase a new windows key.

 

Edit: Probably a little to late for cloning or system image.  If you clean install, your drivers are in link below.

 

http://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/drivers

 

Edit2: The only situation that I'm aware of where your embedded product key would not be accepted during a clean vanilla Windows 8.1 install is if your computer came with Windows 8.1 w/ Bing.  Based on my research, your computer did not come with with Windows 8.1 w/ Bing so you have nothing to worry about.